Lega Nord
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| Lega Nord | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Federal Secretary | Umberto Bossi |
| Federal President | Angelo Alessandri |
| Founded | 8 February 1991 |
| Headquarters | Via Bellerio, 41 20161 Milan |
| Newspaper | La Padania |
| Membership (2008) | 150,000[1] |
| Ideology | Federalism, Regionalism, Fiscal federalism |
| Coalition | with People of Freedom |
| International | none |
| European party | none |
| European Parliament Group | Union for Europe of the Nations |
| Website | http://www.leganord.org |
Lega Nord (North League, LN), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (North League for Independence of Padania), is an Italian political party founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern and Central Italy, most of which had arisen and expanded their share of the electorate over the 1980s.
Its political program advocates the transformation of Italy into a federal State, fiscal federalism and greater regional autonomy, especially for the Northern regions, which they call Padania; at times it has advocated secession. Prior to the party's adoption of the term, Padania was a relatively obscure geographers' designation for the Padan-Venetian Plain.
The founding parties of Lega Nord were Lega Lombarda, Liga Veneta, Piemont Autonomista, Uniun Ligure, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola, Alleanza Toscana, plus the newly formed regional/provincial parties in Friuli, Province of Trieste, Province of Trento, Province of Bolzano, Aosta Valley, Marche and Umbria.
The League is led by Umberto Bossi.
[edit] History
[edit] Precursors and foundation
One of Lega Nord's principal precursors (and, later, sections), Liga Veneta, based in Veneto, elected a deputy, Achille Tramarin, and a senator, Graziano Girardi in the 1983 general election. In the 1987 general election another regional party, Lega Lombarda, based in Lombardy, attained national significance when its leader Umberto Bossi was elected to the Senate. Since then he has commonly been referred to as the Senatür, the word for "senator" in a number of Northern Italian languages – a nickname maintained even when he was no longer a senator.
The party was formed in 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These parties continue to exist as "national sections" of the federal party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as Lega Lombarda-Lega Nord, Liga Veneta-Lega Nord, and so on. Support for the party skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the huge political corruption scandal known as Tangentopoli and the subsequent Mani pulite investigations.
[edit] First government participation
After the 1994 general election, in which the party participated within the Pole of Freedoms coalition, Lega Nord, along with National Alliance and Christian Democratic Centre, joined Forza Italia to form a coalition under the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi. This government (in which the League controlled 5 ministries, Interior with Roberto Maroni, Budget with Giancarlo Pagliarini, Industry with Vito Gnutti, European Affairs with Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms with Francesco Speroni) was short-lived: it collapsed before the end of the year, with the League instrumental in its demise.
In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the new formed cabinet of Lamberto Dini, alongside with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left. This caused many splinter groups to leave the party, including the Federalist Union (which was actually founded in June 1994) of Gianfranco Miglio, the Federalists and Liberal Democrats of Franco Rocchetta, Lucio Malan and Furio Gubetti and the Federalist Italian League of Luigi Negri and Sergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into Forza Italia. Even Roberto Maroni opposed the new course of the party, but after some months of coldness with Bossi, he returned to active politics in June. Between 1995 and 1998 the party entered into alliance with these and other parties of the centre-left in many local contexts, from the Province of Padua to Udine.
[edit] The independentist years
After its success in the 1996 general election (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators), the party announced that its aim was the secession of Northern Italy under the name Padania, an expression previously referring to the Po River valley, but to which Lega Nord gave a geographically broader usage that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organized a referendum on independence as well as elections for a "Padanian Parliament" (with no international recognition).
In later years the League have deemphasised demands for independence and focused rather on devolution, while remaining within the framework of Italy, as in its original goal: not to secede from Italy but to transform it into a federal state.
[edit] The House of Freedoms
In 2000 the party re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding, leading the centre-right to the huge victory in that year regional elections and to the triumph in the 2001 general election. In 2001-2006 Lega Nord controlled three ministries: Justice with Roberto Castelli, Labour and Social Affairs with Roberto Maroni, and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi (replaced by Roberto Calderoli in June 2004).
During the five years in government of the centre-right that followed, the Parliament voted an important constitutional reform, which included federalism and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party for the 2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected by voters in the 2006 constitutional referendum.
[edit] 2008 general election
In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's government on 24 February 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organized by Berlusconi in the People of Freedom (PdL), without the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.
Lega Nord ran in the election in coalition with PdL and the Movement for Autonomy, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the national vote. This result (a gain of 4.2% in two years) allowed the election of 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).
Following this result, since May Lega Nord has been represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet by four ministers (Roberto Maroni, Interior; Luca Zaia, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi, Reforms and Federalism; Roberto Calderoli, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli, Infrastructures; Michelino Davico, Interior; Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances; Francesca Martini, Health; Maurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).
[edit] Ideology
The party's ideology is a combination of political federalism, fiscal federalism and regionalism. In Veneto it supports Venetism, in Lombardy the defense of Lombard culture and language, in Piedmont the defense of Piedmontese culture and language, and so on. The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federal State and, through Lega Nord, federalism has become an important political issue in the country since the 1990s. This is the main difference between the League and the other European regionalist parties, which focus on special rights for their own regions (see the Basque Nationalist Party, the Republican Left of Catalonia, Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National Party, or the Vlaams Belang).
Sometimes it seemed possible that the League might also unite with similar leagues in Central and Southern Italy, but this did not succeed, notwithstanding the presence of the Federalist Alliance. The party continues to dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, including the Valdotanian Union, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, the Movement for Autonomy, and the Sardinian Action Party, and it always had some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably, Angela Maraventano, Deputy-Mayor of Lampedusa, is a senator of Lega Nord.
The political culture of Lega Nord is a mix of pride in the heritage of Northern Italy (particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial Lega Lombarda; the warrior on the party emblems represents Alberto da Giussano, a mythical figure of wars against Barbarossa, from which they inherited anti-monopolism and anti-centralism), distrust of some Southern Italian habits and Roman authorities in particular, some support for free market economics, independentism, distrust of Italy and especially its flag, and claims of a Celtic heritage.
Despite being officially founded on federalism – the party's constitution says that the party will end its political activity when federalism is obtained – Lega Nord is no longer a single-issue party. It is difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative, centrist and left-wing with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal ideas, such as deregulation, and social-democratic ones, such as the defense of wages and pensions. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative and social-democratic factions. In general, it supports the social market economy and many others goals typical of christian-democratic parties.
It has been said that the League is populist in the European sense, but it would probably be more accurate to define the party as populist in the American sense, referring to the experience of the United States Populist Party, a short-lived third party grown in the final years of the 19th Century. Lega Nord is populist in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties to not permit free-masons to join), "fighting against the big powers". This is the reason why the party is strong in the North, despite being obscured and badly-presented by national media, television and newspapers. The party is also libertarian-populist in its promotion of small-ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise, small government against governmental bureaucracy, waste of public funds, pork barrel spending and corruption.
[edit] Federalism or secession?
The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years: some opponents claimed it wanted secession of Padania, while at other times they appeared to be simply requesting more autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.
In 1996, the party switched to open secessionism, calling for the splitting of Italy in three entities, named by Lega Nord "ideologue" and well-known political scientist Gianfranco Miglio: "Padania", "Etruria" and the "South". As a symbolic act of birth of the new nation, on 13-15 September Umberto Bossi took a bottle of water from the springs of Po River (Latin: Padus, hence Padania), which was poured in the sea of Venice by a little girl a few days later. A voluntary group of militants, the green shirts (green being the colour of Padania), was also established.
The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down, and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", going back to the original idea of Gianfranco Miglio: an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions". The new buzzword devolution (often used in English) was also introduced, but with less success than federalism. The choice to tone down and settle just for devolution instead of secession caused criticism from the party base and led to the formation of some minor breakaway factions.
As observed above, the peculiarity of Lega Nord among European regionalist parties is that its main goal is the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.
[edit] Policies
The party takes a social-conservative stance on social issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, medical embryonic stem-cell research, artificial insemination, same-sex marriage (though there is an association called "Padanian Gays" linked to the party) and drug use (though it did once support the legalization of marijuana), despite some notable exceptions: Giancarlo Pagliarini, Rossana Boldi and, to some extent, Roberto Castelli has represented the social-liberal wing within the party ranks.
Lega Nord supports lower taxes, especially for families and small enterprises, and an end to public money to help big businesses facing crisis, as for FIAT and for Alitalia.
The party has also a stronger commitment to the environment compared to its political allies in the centre-right. When in power at the local level, it strongly supports public green areas, the formation of natural parks, recycling, and the end (or regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas. Lega Nord also supports the protection of traditional foods and, in general, represents many farmers who are upset about the Common Agricultural Policy.
The party has a tough, and often harsh, stance on crime, illegal immigration, especially from Muslim countries, and terrorism. It supports the promotion of immigration from non-Muslim countries in order to protect the "Christian identity" of Italy and Europe, which, according to party officials, should be based on "Judeo-Christian heritage").
In foreign policy, the League often criticizes the European Union (it was the only party other than the Communist Refoundation Party in the Italian Parliament to vote against the European Constitution) and opposes what it calls the idea of an "European Super-State", favoring instead a "Europe of Regions", as does the Christian Social Union and the European Free Alliance. The party has never had a particularly pro-U.S. stance, although it admires the American federal political system. Its MPs opposed both the Gulf War in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 in the name of pacifism, and Umberto Bossi personally met Slobodan Milosević during that war[2][3]. However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the emergence of Islamist terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on terror[4][5][6][7], while expressing several reservations about American policy on Iraq[8][9][10].
[edit] Reasons for initial success
Especially in the early years, the League exploited resentment against Rome (with the famous slogan Roma ladrona, Italian for "Rome big thief") and the Italian government, common in Northern Italy, because some Northern Italians felt that the governments in Rome wasted resources collected mostly from Northern Italians' taxes.
Unpopularity of Southern Italians (often dubbed as terroni) and resentment against illegal immigrants were also exploited. The electoral successes of the party began roughly at a time when public disillusionment with old political parties was high. The scandals of Tangentopoli were unveiled from 1992 on. However, contrary to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force in Italian politics.
[edit] International affiliation
Lega Nord was originally a member of the European Free Alliance and its first two MEPs, Francesco Speroni and Luigi Moretti, joined the Rainbow Group in the European Parliament during the IV parliamentary term (1989-1994). Between 1994 and 1997 it was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, altghough one MEP, Raimondo Fassa, continued to sit in that group until 1999. During the VI parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents along with Italian Radicals and then returned to the Non-Inscrits.[11][12][13][14]
Following the 2004 election Lega Nord joined the Independence/Democracy group and later the Union for Europe of the Nations, an someway awkward affiliation for a party which proposes the "Europe of the Regions". The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until 2006, when its members joined the European Democratic Group.[15]
[edit] Controversies
While the party leadership dismisses charges of racism and declares itself non-violent, there have been instances of speeches, interviews and banners pointing otherwise. Umberto Bossi himself, who described African immigrants as Bingo-bongos, in an interview suggested opening fire on the boats of immigrants who would disembark in Italy[16], but after widespread criticism he declared he was referring to empty boats.
Erminio Boso, a local leader from the Province of Trento, proposed to segregate immigrants in different train cars from native Italians[17]. The former Mayor of Treviso, Giancarlo Gentilini, while in office, spoke about those he called "immigrant slackers", saying, "We should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang"[18].
Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana (Padanian Humanitarian Association), Lega Nord participates in social and economic humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions, and identities. The campaigns are carried out in underdeveloped nations or in those that have suffered from war or from natural catastrophes. Locations of recent missions have included Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan[19].
[edit] Factions
Lega Nord wants to unite all those Northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason it tends to be a de-ideologized party. Although there are no organized factions, it is possible to differentiate tendencies or wings.
- Social democrats and populist left-wing. This group is very strong in Lombardy and represents the original group of founders, who conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left (and, to some extent, social-democratic) political force.[20][21] It is composed of such people as Umberto Bossi himself (ex-Communist), Roberto Maroni (ex-DP and ex-Green), Francesco Speroni, Gian Paolo Gobbo, Stefano Stefani, Rosi Mauro (leader of the Padanian Trade Union, Sin.Pa., and former trade unionist of the metalworkers' section of the Italian Labour Union), Dario Galli, Matteo Salvini and Bruno Ravera. They are more committed to social justice and the defence of wages and pensions, and are also supporters of small and medium-size enterprises.
- Liberal-centrists. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish this group from the first one, but it is composed of those who support a more centrist political line. It is particularly strong in Veneto and is composed of such people as Giancarlo Giorgetti, Maurizio Balocchi (ex-Liberal), Manuela Dal Lago (ex-Liberal), Gianpaolo Dozzo, Paolo Franco, Luciano Dussin, Luciano Gasperini, Sergio Divina, Angelo Alessandri and Gianluca Pini.
- Libertarian and liberals. These represent the more liberal and reform-minded faction within the party, including some uncompromised libertarians. The group is composed of such people as Roberto Castelli, Roberto Cota, Luca Zaia, Daniele Molgora (ex-Liberal), Marco Reguzzoni, Fiorello Provera, Rossana Boldi and Mario Pittoni. Giancarlo Pagliarini, Gilberto Oneto and Marco Pottino also belonged to that tendency, but those three recently fell foul with the leadership of the party, while continuing to support most of its policies.
- Christian democrats. These represent those who are committed to Christian democracy, Catholic social teaching, and the social market economy: for this reason, they can be considered a bridge between the more left-wing and liberal factions. The group is composed of such people as Giuseppe Leoni (leader of Padanian Catholics), Andrea Gibelli, Carolina Lussana, Massimo Polledri, Michelino Davico, Flavio Rodeghiero and Francesca Martini (both very close to Maroni).
- Conservatives. These are the more right-wing faction within the party. They include Roberto Calderoli, Mario Borghezio (leader of Christian Padania and ex-Monarchist), Matteo Bragantini, Piergiorgio Stiffoni (ex-MSI), Federico Bricolo, Flavio Tosi, and Erminio Boso, and tend to be strongly socially conservative and supportive of the Roman Catholic Church. The group is stronger in Veneto and Piedmont than it is in Lombardy and its members are generally keen supporters of the alliance with the People of Freedom and Silvio Berlusconi (with the notable exception of Borghezio).
- Independentists. These cross all the other factions and basically propose the independence of Padania. They include such people as Francesco Speroni, Mario Borghezio and Erminio Boso. Both Giancarlo Pagliarini and Gilberto Oneto were part of the group.
[edit] 1997 Padanian elections
In 1997, Lega Nord organized what it called "the first elections to the Padanian Parliament". Roughly 4 million Northern Italians (the party said 6 million) went to the "polls" and chose between a number of Padanian parties [22]:
- Matteo Salvini was candidate for the Padanian Communist Party (5 seats out of 210);
- Roberto Maroni, Marco Formentini, Giovanni Meo Zilio (an ex-Socialist partisan during the Italian Resistance), Franco Colleoni and Mariella Mazzetto launched the social-democratic European Democrats-Padanian Labour (52 seats);
- a group of Venetian Leghisti formed the Venetist Padanian Lions (14 seats);
- Giuseppe Leoni and Roberto Ronchi founded the christian-democratic Padanian Catholics (20 seats);
- Giancarlo Pagliarini, Vito Gnutti, Roberto Cota and Massimo Zanello led the liberal-conservative Forza Italia-styled Liberal Democrats–Forza Padania, which supported alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's party (50 seats);
- Marco Pottino launched Libertarian and Liberal Padania (12 seats);
- Erminio Boso led the agrarian-conservative Padanian Union–Agriculture, Environment, Hunting, Fishing (5 seats);
- Enzo Flego and Walter Gherardini formed the national-conservative Padanian Right (27 seats);
- Benedetto Della Vedova, a Radical politician, was elected at the head of an anti-prohibitionist and free-market libertarian list, while Nando Dalla Chiesa, a Green MP, was an unsuccessful candidate in Milan.
[edit] Alliances
In the Lega Nord, there have always been different perspectives about national alliances. In 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi-Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms, Roberto Maroni, a moderate, signed a pact with Mario Segni's Pact for Italy, which was later cancelled. When Bossi decided to stop supporting the first Berlusconi government at the end of the same year, Maroni, who was the Minister of the Interior, and many other members of the League distanced themselves from their leader. Many left the party (40 deputies out of 117 and 17 senators out of 60) and some, including Lucio Malan, switched to Forza Italia. Maroni, after some months of coldness in his relationship with Bossi, returned to be an active member of the League.
After the 1996 general election, which Lega Nord fought outside the big two coalitions, those who supported an alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini and others) and those who preferred to enter into Romano Prodi's alliance did not disappear. Some of them (15 deputies out of 59 and 9 senators out of 27) left the party to switch to the centre-right or the centre-left, as Marco Formentini and Irene Pivetti did. The group of Gnutti and Comino was expelled in 1999, after which they formed an alliance with the centre-right at the local level, while Comencini had left the party in 1998 to launch his Liga Veneta Repubblica with the mid-term objective of entering in coalition with Forza Italia in Veneto.
After the decline of Lega Nord in the 1999 European Parliament election, senior members of the party decided that it was not possible to attain the party's goals if they continued to refuse an alliance with one of the two coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who had always been left-leaning at heart, despite his defense of Berlusconi in 1994, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. He reached an agreement, this time the centre-left, only to be refuted by Bossi, who had previously invited him to pursue direct talks with Massimo D'Alema, as in 1994 with Segni. These talks were successful, so that in Lombardy the centre-left candidate in the 2000 regional elections would have been Maroni himself, but Bossi decided to return to the alliance with Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming general election. Lega Nord, within with the other House of Freedoms parties, won both the 2000 regional elections and the 2001 general election, and returned to national office.
During the years in government in Rome (2001-06), the party saw the emergence of two different political viewpoints about alliances: some, led by Roberto Calderoli and Roberto Castelli (with the backing of the ill Umberto Bossi), vigorously supported participation with the centre-right, while others, represented by Roberto Maroni and Giancarlo Giorgetti, were less warm about it. Some of them spoke of possibly joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election, which they were certain to lose. This idea was ascribed to the fact that, without any support from the left, it seemed even more difficult to win the constitutional referendum, which would have turned Italy in a federal state. The centre-left did not change its position and the referendum was lost, making the North angry with the new Prodi government and the Leghisti less keen on making an alliance with those who opposed constitutional reform.
[edit] Popular support
Support for Lega Nord is diverse even inside Padania and has varied over time, reaching a maximum of 10.1% of the vote in the 1996 general election (around 25% north of the Po River). In that year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote in Veneto, 25.5% in Lombardy, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 18.2% in Piedmont, 13.2% in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna, 1.8% in Tuscany, 1.5% in the Marche, and 1.0% in Umbria. The Leghisti were able to elect 59 deputies and 27 senators (of which 39 and 19 respectively were from single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win, due to its successes in some Northern constituencies characterized by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in the Provinces of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine to Cuneo, passing through Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.
In the 2008 general election Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria. Despite a slight decline in term of votes, the party remains particularly strong in the Pedemontana, especially in Lombardy and Veneto, and in mountain zones of Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont.
Lega Nord currently controls six of the 110 Italian Provinces, including some of the most populous ones, namely Sondrio, Varese and Como in Lombardy, Treviso and Vicenza in Veneto, and Udine. Yet Lega Nord is the largest party in the Province of Bergamo, one of the most populated in Italy, the reason why Forza Italia, the dominant party of the centre-right, wants to maintain its hold on that administration, and in other two provinces in Veneto: Verona and Belluno. Mayors of Lega Nord govern some important cities, including Verona, Treviso, Lecco, Monza, Varese and Novara.
[edit] Electoral results
The electoral results of Lega Nord in the Northern regions of Italy are shown in the table below.
| 1990 regional | 1992 general | 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | 2008 general | |
| Liguria | 6.1 | 14.3 | 11.4 | 6.6 | 10.2 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 3.7 | 6.8 |
| Piedmont | 5.1 | 16.3 | 15.7 | 9.9 | 18.2 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 5.9 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 6.3 | 12.6 |
| Lombardy | 18.9 | 23.0 | 22.1 | 17.7 | 25.5 | 13.1 | 15.5 | 12.1 | 13.8 | 15.8 | 11.7 | 21.6 |
| Veneto | 7.2 | 17.3 | 21.6 | 16.7 | 29.3 | 10.7 | 12.0 | 10.2 | 14.1 | 14.7 | 11.1 | 27.1 |
| Trentino-AA | - | 8.9 | 7.6 | 9.6 (1993) | 13.2 | 2.4 | 4.7 (1998) | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.2 (2003) | 4.5 | 9.4 |
| Friuli-VG | - | 15.3 | 16.9 | 26.7 (1993) | 23.2 | 10.1 | 17.3 (1998) | 8.2 | 8.5 | 9.3 (2003) | 7.2 | 13.0 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 2.9 | 9.6 | 6.4 | 3.4 | 7.2 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 4.8 | 3.9 | 7.8 |
| Tuscany | 0.8 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 2.0 |
| Marche | 0.2 | 1.3 | - | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.4 | - | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 2.2 |
| ITALY | - | 8.7 | 8.4 | - | 10.1 | 4.5 | - | 3.9 | 5.0 | - | 4.1 | 8.3 |
[edit] Leadership
[edit] Federal level
- Federal Secretary: Umberto Bossi (1991–...)
- Coordinator of Federal Secretariat: Roberto Ronchi (1991–1994), Roberto Maroni (1994–2001), Francesco Speroni (2001–2005), Roberto Maroni (2005–...)
- Coordinator of National Sections: Roberto Calderoli (2002–...)
- Federal President: Franco Rocchetta (1991–1994), Stefano Stefani (1995–2002), Luciano Gasperini (2002–2005), Angelo Alessandri (2005–...)
- Federal Administrative Secretary: Alessandro Patelli (1991–1993), Maurizio Balocchi (1993–...)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Marco Formentini (1992–1994), Pierluigi Petrini (1994–1995), Vito Gnutti (1995–1996), Domenico Comino (1996–1999), Giancarlo Pagliarini (1999–2001), Alessandro Cè (2001–2005), Andrea Gibelli (2005–2006), Roberto Maroni (2006–2008), Roberto Cota (2008–...)
- Party Leader in the Senate: Francesco Speroni (1992–1994), Francesco Tabladini (1994–1996), Francesco Speroni (1996–1999), Luciano Gasperini (1999–2000), Roberto Castelli (2000–2001), Francesco Moro (2001–2004), Ettore Pirovano (2004–2006), Roberto Castelli (2006–2008), Federico Bricolo (2008–...)
- Party Leader in the European Parliament: Francesco Speroni (1989–1992), Luigi Moretti (1992–1999), Francesco Speroni (1999–2004), Mario Borghezio (2004–...)
[edit] National level
[edit] Liga Veneta
- National Secretary: Achille Tramarin (1980−1984), Marilena Marin (1984−1994), Fabrizio Comencini (1994−1998), Gian Paolo Gobbo (1998−...)
- National President: Franco Rocchetta (1980−1994), Gian Paolo Gobbo (1994−1998), Giuseppe Ceccato (1998–1999), Gianpaolo Dozzo (1999−2001), Manuela Dal Lago (2001−...)
[edit] Lega Lombarda
- National Secretary: Umberto Bossi (1984–1993), Luigi Negri (1993–1995), Roberto Calderoli (1995–2002), Giancarlo Giorgetti (2002–...)
- National President: Giuseppe Leoni (1984–1989), Franco Castellazzi (1989–1991), Francesco Speroni (1991–1993), Roberto Calderoli (1993–1995), Giuseppe Leoni (1995–1999), Stefano Galli (1999–2002), Roberto Castelli (2002–...)
[edit] Piemont Autonomista / Lega Nord Piemont
- National Secretary: Gipo Farassino (1987–1996), Domenico Comino (1996–1999), Bernardino Bosio (1999–2001), Roberto Cota (2001–...)
- National President: Bernardino Bosio (1991–1999), Matteo Brigandì (1999–2001), Oreste Rossi (2001–2004), Mario Borghezio (2004–...)
[edit] Lega Nord Friuli / Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia
- National Secretary: Roberto Visentin (1991–1999), Eduard Ballaman (1999–2000), Giuseppe Zoppolato (2000–2003), Ugo Follegot (2003–2005), Marco Pottino (2005–2007)
- National President: Pietro Fontanini (1991–2001), Rinaldo Bosco (2001–2005), Alessandra Guerra (2005–2008)
[edit] Lega Emiliano-Romagnola / Lega Nord Emilia
- National Secretary: Fabio Dosi (1989–1995), Pierluigi Copercini (1995–1996), Maurizio Parma (1996–2002), Angelo Alessandri (2002–...)
- National President: unknown (1991–1996), Gianni Bettelli (1996–1999), Genesio Ferrari (1999–2002), Villiam Pellacani (2002–2006), Fabio Rainieri (2006–...)
[edit] Uniun Ligure / Lega Nord Liguria
- National Secretary: Bruno Ravera (1987–1994), Giacomo Chiappori (1994–1998), Francesco Bruzzone (1998–...)
- National President: unknown (1987–1994), Bruno Ravera (1994–1998), Andrea Corrado (1998–...)
[edit] Alleanza Toscana / Lega Nord Toscana
- National Secretary: Mario Forconi (1987–1988), Tommaso Fragassi (1988–1994), Simone Gnaga (1994–1999), Vincenzo Soldati (1999–2007)
- National President: Tommaso Fragassi (1987–1988), Gualberto Niccolini (1988–1995), Walter Gherardini (1995–2001), Moreno Menconi (2001–2007)
[edit] Lega Nord Trentino
- National Secretary: Erminio Boso (1991–1994), Sergio Divina (1994–1999), Rolando Fontan (1999–2001), Denis Bertolini (2001–2003), Sergio Divina (2003–2005), Maurizio Fugatti (2005–...)
- National President: unknown (1991–1996), Marco Tomasi (1996–2001), Lorenzo Conci (2001–2003), Sergio Divina (2003–...)
[edit] Lega Nord Sud Tirolo
- Current National Secretary: Kurt Pancheri
[edit] Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta
- Current National Secretary: Sergio Ferrero
[edit] Lega Nord Romagna
- Current National Secretary: Gianluca Pini
[edit] Lega Nord Marche
- Current National Secretary: Luca Rodolfo Paolini
[edit] Lega Nord Umbria
- Current National Secretary: Francesco Miroballo
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/aprile/16/Lega_rete_co_9_080416149.shtml
- ^ http://www.corriere.it/speciali/xenofobia/index.shtml
- ^ http://www.repubblica.it/online/dossier/rumi/rumi/rumi.html
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2001/ottobre/10/Lega_partito_filo_Milosevic_ora_co_0_0110104176.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2001/novembre/08/Poli_trovano_intesa_all_intervento_co_0_0111087026.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2002/ottobre/04/maggioranza_via_alla_missione_Afghanistan_co_0_0210043126.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/settembre/07/Calderoli_Bush_regali_atomica_Ahmadinejad_co_9_060907127.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/aprile/22/strappo_della_Lega_sulla_missione_co_9_040422002.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/aprile/22/Lega_tende_smarcarsi_Inviti_alla_co_9_040422006.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2005/luglio/09/Calderoli_andiamocene_Polo_frena_Rifinanziamento_co_8_050709028.shtml
- ^ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=1101
- ^ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=997
- ^ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=2036
- ^ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=1954
- ^ http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/ALMemberDetails.asp?MemberID=5791
- ^ http://it.geocities.com/ilgruppodellatanadelgiaguaro/forum_libero/messaggi/58.htm
- ^ http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/boso/reportage/reportage.html
- ^ http://www.repubblica.it/online/cronaca/immitreviso/ramadan/ramadan.html
- ^ http://www.lapadania.com/PadaniaOnLine/Articolo.aspx?pDesc=48435,1,1
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/gennaio/28/Maroni_solo_vado_congresso_co_0_9501287416.shtml
- ^ http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/maggio/08/Bossi_riaccoglie_Maroni_torna_alle_co_0_9505087057.shtml
- ^ http://www.leganord.org/ilmovimento/storia/03_lega_nord_storia96_98.pdf
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Lega Nord in the world
- La Padania
- Miss Padania
- Movimento Giovani Padani
- Associazione Umanitaria Padana
- Padania Paper Money
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Anna Bull & Mark Gilbert, 2001. The Lega Nord and the Northern Question in Italian Politics, Palgrave.
- José Pedro Zúquete, 2007. Missionary Politics in Contemporary Europe, Syracuse University Press.
